5 Talking Points from the World Rugby U20 Championship you might have missed?
After three fantastic weeks of action, the 2025 World Rugby U20 Championships are over, South Africa have won their second title, defending champions England finished 6th, Ireland struggled, and some big changes were announced for 2026.
1. What can explain the southern hemisphere dominance?
It is an unavoidable fact of the U20 World Championship that South Africa, New Zealand, and Argentina finished 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in this year’s tournament. Australia even defeated the defending champions, England, in the 5th-place playoff, leaving France as the only nation residing north of the equator to crack the top 5. But what has caused this? A quick look at the pool stages can lessen the blow of this tournament’s meagre showing for the nations of Europe. In pool C, it is unfortunate that Ireland, Georgia and the host nation, Italy, cancelled each other out with close-fought contests that enabled New Zealand to breeze through to the semi-finals. With only 3 places left in the later stages, Spain and Wales both underperformed in pool B, gifting Argentina 10 points from their two meetings, which was always going to leave England scrambling for second place after defeat to South Africa in pool A. A singular bonus point denied England a spot in the semi-finals. If the new extended format on the Horizon had been in place, then England and Italy would both have progressed to the quarters, and the final phase of the tournament could have looked very different. So, no need to panic about the future of European Rugby, but take nothing away from New Zealand and South Africa, who were the top two sides throughout the competition.
2. Georgian Rugby is still on the Rise.
In the last 20 years, Georgia has risen from 23rd to 11th in the world rankings, currently ahead of Wales after truly challenging an Irish touring side this summer. In the U18 age grade, they were crowned European champions yet again, which earned them entry into the U18 Six Nations. In this edition of the U20S, they finished 9th overall, above the likes of Ireland and Scotland, with an 84th-minute try denying them a win over hosts Italy in the group stages. The power and aggression of the Georgian’s is well known, with Rassie Erasmus commenting during the tournament that a game against the young Lelos was exactly what any young player needed to “Grow up”. However, Georgia is growing in every area of the game, and signs of that continued in this competition. Ten of the Georgian forwards in the U20 side play for French sides already, while their scrum-half Giorgi Spanderashvili played much like the 9s of France, who tend to run the game. Number 8 Mikheil Shioshvili was the tournament’s top scorer, but a number of his tries were scored from his position out-wide, skipping through the defence with his dynamic lines of running, and his great link-up play with Spanderashvili. With global superstars like Davit Niniashvili, still only 23, as the face of this new generation, next season’s U20 World Championship hosts are quickly becoming a rugby powerhouse.
3. Oh no, there’s another Ntamack. Wait, there are two of them?
France where the best European team at the world U20 championships, and they were driven on throughout by two exceptional fly-halves. Diego Jurd, the 18-year-old who has been at Stade Rochelais his entire life, is not a fan of the Welsh, having played the full 80 minutes against them in French wins during the U20 6 Nations and world championships. Outside of that, he has been sharing the shirt with Luka Keletaona, who managed to make one appearance for Brive in the Pro D2 outside of his 7 appearances for the U20S. Together, they ran the show. Keletaona knocked over 30 points, while Jurd managed 22 across the tournament (that’s 15 and 11 conversions between them), while they each had big parts to play throughout the tournament. Scrum-halves are so often the key to how French sides operate, but having two outstanding teenage tens at their disposal allowed France to push hard into the second half of each game they played, with the new fly-half bringing fresh energy and organisation whenever introduced. They are both ones to watch going forward, with Keletaona hopefully being handed more and more opportunities in France’s second division next season, while Jurd still has time on his side, and will likely flourish as the stand-alone U20 fly-half for Les Blues in next year’s Six Nations and beyond.
4. Harry’s coming Home
One of the standouts of the competition was Wales ‘working skipper, Harry Bedell. Although Richard Wiffin’s side didn’t have the strongest tournament possible, they stayed in the contest in almost every game they were a part of, except perhaps their game against England, whom they did memorably beat in the Six Nations this past season, again under Bedell’s steely leadership. Narrow defeats against the host Italy, third-placed side Argentina and European standouts France are not to be taken lightly. With a win against Spain thrown in to guarantee that the tournament was far from the embarrassment that some of the senior sides’ recent outings have become. Across Wales fixtures, the captain made a remarkable 83 tackles, 11 more than second place, with his efforts alone bumping Wales up from 4th to 1st in the category of shots completed. The Hartpury Graduate completed his move from Leicester Tigers to the Dragons ahead of the tournament, and he will hopefully see plenty of minutes in the URC after making his Tigers debut in the prem-cup as a teenager. It is exciting to see that yet another fantastic young Welsh flanker is set to star on the biggest stage.
5. No relegation? What is this, the Premiership? Or URC? Or Super Rugby? Or MLR?
You may well have read that a new format is coming to the U20 world championship, and the impact that it would have had on this competition has already been referenced, but the bigger debate is where the new sides finish in next year’s edition, based on what we’ve seen this year? The Spanish survive despite finishing bottom of the tournament, but the new entrants are all non-European, qualifying based on their performances in the U20 Trophy. Fiji, the USA, Japan and Uruguay join the contest. Scotland were victors in the 2024 edition, while Fiji was relegated from the U20 Championship in the Southern Hemisphere. Fiji will likely be the strongest of the new sides in the competition, with their Super Rugby side and international 7s set-up supplying a number of bright one players. The US, with the MLR and flourishing collegiate system to support a U20 side, will also be a strong addition to the competition, losing in the final to Scotland in the 2024 trophy, after beating Uruguay in the pool stage. Japan, with the growing success of the Japanese rugby league, will also be well-structured, even if their senior side is usually complemented by foreign qualifiers that will not influence the youth side in the same degree. Uruguay is more of an unknown quality, but regardless, the return to a regular 4-pool structure will only improve the competition.
